"Happy Holidays"?

This year I bought some cards with Monet's painting on it. Inside it says "Happy Holidays". A friend of mine, who received one of those cards from me, said that he's wondering now if I'm a raging liberal inside because the card says "happy holidays", rather than merry Christmas and such. He was just joking, by the way.

That's the thing, though. Are we afraid of mentioning even the word "Christmas" now? Why do people celebrate and what do people celebrate in December now? Christmas has become really just a cultural thing. We play Christmasy songs on the radio (even Christian radio stations) that sing of snow, coming home, Santa Claus, Rudolf, etc. We put up a tree in our living room with presents underneath. We run around shopping malls trying to find the perfect present. We go home for a week or two. We eat turkey (is that what people eat for Christmas? I'm not sure. In my family we eat Chinese food for any occasion) and sing carols (again, often about Santa and things). What's the point of all that really? Is it just a time to gather with family and feel loved by getting presents?

We Christians should all know what we are celebrating this season. Sadly, though, we often fall into the same secular sentiment this world celebrates. I always wonder why in the world Christian radio stations would ever play "Santa Claus is coming to town" and the like. Because I know my own tendency to go along with the secular sentiment for Christmas, I always intentionally stay away from anything that has to do with Santa. But it's really hard to find any Christmas cards now that doesn't have Santa, snowmen, reindeer, trees and things on it. It's even harder to find cards with a solid message about the Savior. Am I trying to excuse myself from having given a card that doesn't say "merry Christmas"? Maybe. Honestly I just really liked the Monet paiting. But I'm also ranting about the lightness we attribute to Christmas now. If we really spend some time meditating on the birth of Jesus, how can we be not amazed? God the Son, the Creator of the heaven and earth, became flesh, and was born or Mary, a virgin! No miracle is greater than that! If we really think about the amazing love God has shown us through the birth of Jesus Christ, how on earth would we still want to celebrate Santa Claus is coming to town? I hope in the midst of all the craziness that is almost inevitable this season we will take time to be in God's Word, thinking upon and be amazed by the glorious miracle of Jesus' birth.